The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan was established in the CARES Act to help small businesses – those with less than 500 employees – stay afloat during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. According to Fox News, 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates throughout the country applied for the PPP loans. The Small Business Administration is asking these individual affiliates to return the funds because they failed to qualify for the loans. The 37 affiliates collected a combined total of $80 million in PPP loans.
Under the PPP loan guidelines, a business has to have less 500 employees. Each of these clinics have less than 500 employees but they're part of a larger organization, meaning they don't actually qualify for the funds from the stimulus legislation. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA) on its own has more than 600 employees.
Even though the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington in the nation's capitol self-certified that they qualified for the loans, the affiliate has to return $1,328,000 in funding.
The letter the affiliate received reiterates rules regulating PPP funding.
"PPFA's bylaws, a version of which is publicly available, reveal that becoming a PPFA affiliate requires a certification by the PPFA board," the document stated, according to Fox News. "Once certified, "[e]ach Affiliate shall be governed by written bylaws, which conform to PPFA policies."
The majority of the program's loans – 98 percent – are less than $1 million, with the average loan amount being $118,000. The largest loan was allotted to the Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in Southern California and came with a $7.5 million price tag.
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These affiliates are required to repay the loan amount or face severe penalties, including criminal or civil sanctions if the SBA determines that borrowers knowingly made false statements in order to receive funds.
The White House has concerns about PPP funds being used for taxpayer-funded abortions, which goes directly against the Hyde Amendment.
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